Desperately in need of Republican friends to get his agenda through a divided General Assembly, McAuliffe, a Democrat, has restocked the executive mansion bar and thrown open the doors for nightly receptions. In at least one case, he sniffed out just which craft beer a GOP bigwig likes and made sure to have it on hand.

“Sixty parties in 60 days!” McAuliffe has declared, referring to the length of the assembly session.

To the discount hooch and Bud Light normally on tap at the mansion, the governor has added top-shelf liquor and microbrews at his own expense — a move made possible by his personal wealth and made necessary by heightened scrutiny to mansion spending amid his predecessor’s gifts scandal. While appealing to the legislature’s more discriminating tipplers, McAuliffe has not forgotten the teetotalers: For them, he serves up daily breakfasts, picking up the private catering tab personally. …

But his nonstop entertaining has created the most buzz, in part because it feeds into the narrative that McAuliffe is Virginia’s schmoozer-in-chief. Whether his effort works or not remains to be seen.

I’m not necessarily knocking an executive making himself accessible and establishing personal relationships, but I’m just not quite sure that boozing-schmoozing alone is going to be enough to make a legitimate case for Medicaid expansion here. The Republican-led House of Delegates was rather unappreciative of McAuliffe’s suggestion that they abandon the bipartisan commission tasked with assessing the merits of expanding the program and simply hand the matter over to his executive behest by the end of the legislative session, and aren’t seeing any evidence from the governor’s office to convince them that expanding the program actually won’t end up being a fiscally unsustainable boondoggle in the long run.

McAuliffe and his critics invoked his entertaining this week in the midst of Republican complaints that the governor has been too short on policy specifics.

“I’ve never seen anyone so slow to get started” on legislation, House Majority Leader M. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights, had said in an interview with The Washington Post. “There seems to be an event over there every night. I’m not sure I’ve seen much else going on.” …

“This is like frat house governor,” said state Del. Robert Marshall, R-Prince William. “Clearly he’s trying to be friendly, but I’ll watch my wallet over there.”

Just a fraction of the more than 6 million people the Obama administration has touted as being determined eligible for Medicaid under Obamacare are new enrollees, according to an independent study released Wednesday.

The new study, published by the health advisory company Avalere, estimates that between 1.1 and 1.8 million people are newly enrolled in Medicaid thanks to the Affordable Care Act over the final three months of 2013.

While federal officials have frequently cited increased Medicaid enrollment as an example of Obamacare’s success, they have been unable to report how many of those enrollees would have been eligible for the government program without the law’s expanded eligibility requirements.

Guv McAwful. Why is anybody surprised? This is what Virginia voters wanted.

I have been wondering if it takes a constitutional amendment to permit more of Virginia to join West Virginia. Given the option, I wouldn’t be surprised to see all of the territory from the Blue Ridge westward vote to join WV.

I don’t see the House of Delegates going along with a plan to immediately expand Medicaid. Especially after the rancor caused by McAuliffe’s appointments to the ABC Board, his threat to use executive order to expand Medicaid, and (of course) AG Herring’s 900 vote mandate to completely scrap the ban on same sex marriage in the VA Constitution because he, personally, doesn’t agree with it.

I have been wondering if it takes a constitutional amendment to permit more of Virginia to join West Virginia. Given the option, I wouldn’t be surprised to see all of the territory from the Blue Ridge westward vote to join WV.

platypus on February 6, 2014 at 1:10 PM

The Blue Ridge and west? I’m pretty sure everything 5 miles outside the Beltway would vote to join WV.

A lot of people who were low income before Obamacare, did not “Sign Up” for Medicaid unless they were sick. They did not live in fear, they new that benefit was there for them if something bad happened. Many never signed up. They don’t know why they have to sign up now. They have not had to file taxes with the penalty yet, and we don’t know if they usually make out a tax return. That’s where the penalty is. Some of these people profit in the underground Cash Economy, and don’t keep receipts. Those people want to stay in the shadows.

While federal officials have frequently cited increased Medicaid enrollment as an example of Obamacare’s success, they have been unable to report how many of those enrollees would have been eligible for the government program without the law’s expanded eligibility requirements.

Lack of concrete data seems to be a perpetual problem with this administration.

Oh! There’s a difference. DC still has conservatives. Not many but a few. Arlington is run by a raving pack of feral jackels. The only check on them is the fact that Richmond has to approve any local taxation (a bag tax for example) Otherwise Arlington would be just like Montgomery County (MD).

Oh! There’s a difference. DC still has conservatives. Not many but a few. Arlington is run by a raving pack of feral jackels. The only check on them is the fact that Richmond has to approve any local taxation (a bag tax for example) Otherwise Arlington would be just like Montgomery County (MD).

The Virginia legislature years ago banned governors from donating excess inauguration funds to political causes, but that hasn’t stopped Gov. Terry McAuliffe from finding a way to route $211,000 from his inaugural fund back to his election campaign and the Virginia Democratic Party, disclosure records show.

Terry got a lot of traction out of Bob McDonnell’s alleged ethics lapses. I guess the rules change when you’re a filthy carpetbagger Democrat.

I have been wondering if it takes a constitutional amendment to permit more of Virginia to join West Virginia. Given the option, I wouldn’t be surprised to see all of the territory from the Blue Ridge westward vote to join WV.

platypus on February 6, 2014 at 1:10 PM

I took matters into my own hands. This Virginian is closing on his second home in WV next week. Might become my primary home at some point.

WV is trending in the right direction – not as quickly as VA in the wrong direction, but we’ve all got to do what we’ve got to do.

I knew I made the right decision when the home inspector commented about how the mountain on my property would make a great backstop for target shooting. I told him he wasn’t the first person to make that observation.

I have been wondering if it takes a constitutional amendment to permit more of Virginia to join West Virginia. Given the option, I wouldn’t be surprised to see all of the territory from the Blue Ridge westward vote to join WV.

I don’t think VA.willbe joining WV any time soon. They have too many Democrat voters. They are terribly confused over there. They don’t understand ideology. Two words: Joe Manchin.

BetseyRoss on February 6, 2014 at 2:11 PM

They are blue dog Democrats coming to grips with the fact that this hard-left national party doesn’t represent them anymore. They love their pork, but they are culturally conservative. Transformations generally don’t happen overnight.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Manchin doesn’t switch parties by the end of his term. After a while, trying to square the idea that the national party literally wants to steal your livelihoods away from you over their climate religion has to become untenable.

Arlington now seems to be run for the exclusive benefit of illegal aliens – I used to live in Arlington, but now it’s populated by illegals and young, liberal political junkies who came here to be close to the messiah. Give Arlington to DC; it’s kind of like cutting off a gangrenous limb to save the rest of the body.

The reality is, though, that the rest of Northern VA has been overrun by upper-middle-class “consultants”, mostly liberal, who moved here from toxic places like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and California – they moved here because of employment and lifestyle benefits – unfortunately, they brought the same liberal viewpoints that trashed the last place they lived.

They’re ill-mannered “guests”, who move here, trash the place, then will move on once they’ve completely soiled the nest. Brace yourself, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina – they’re coming your way next. You can hear ’em from a mile away – Jersey Shore accents at ear-shattering volumes, bad dye jobs, and driving a high-end SUV or minivan …

TMac, Kaine, Warner, they’re a result of these imports, not people who’ve spent most or all of their lives here.

You should hear them push their agenda to have us live like they do in crappy little condos by a mileage tax. We live 100 miles away and commute there every day for work. Not having them as neighbors is worth the drive so they have to punish us.

Listen up morons. Just because somebody shows up to affair given by the governor doesn’t mean his vote changes. If that were so why did George Bush have so much trouble with Democrats? Why couldn’t Obama get Rebublicans to vote for ACA? There will be no Medicaid expansion in Virginia.

I am tired of the kamikaze brigade making comments about Virginia when it is clear they they are clueless morons who have no idea on how things are done in Virginia or any legislative body.